To Cóvet. v.a. [convoiter, French.]

1. To desire inordinately; to desire beyond due bounds.

               If it be a sin to covet honour,
   I am the most offending man alive. Shakespeare's Henry V.

                               I am yet
   Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
   Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
   at no time broke my faith. Shakespeare's Macbeth.

   O father! can it be that souls sublime,
   Return to visit our terrestrial clime?
   And that the gen'rous mind, releas'd by death,
   Can covet lazy limbs and mortal breath? Dryden's Æn.

2. To desire earnestly.

   But covet earnestly the best gifts. 1 Cor. xii. 31.